Mage of the Beginning
The Mage of the Beginning, also known as the Life-Maker, whose real name is Ialda Baoth (ヨルダ・バオト, Yoruda Baoto)UQ Holder! Manga: Chapter 129, Page 58, is the primary antagonist of the series and its prequel Negima! Magister Negi Magi. She is an unfathomably powerful immortal archmage who created the Magical World and gave life to Fate Averruncus. She is repeatedly referred to as "the final boss" and described as the archenemy of Evangeline McDowell, Nagi Springfield, Negi Springfield, Fate Averruncus, UQ Holder as a whole, and Touta Konoe. Appearance The Mage of the Beginning appears as a very tall and threatening figure, clad in long dark robes and cloaks, with her cloak torn to shreds floating around her like wings. Her real aspect is that of a youthful-looking, timeless woman with long hair worn in plaits that frame the back of the head. Others depictions show her with large bat-like wings at hip level, similar to the Demon Nobility. Since she manifests by possessing people who killed her, she can appear under the aspect of her current vessel and copy their mannerism and memories to the point of perfection. She can even assume the aspect of any of her previous vessels at will. When her current vessel is killed, she appears under her true form, to possess her victor. Whether she is completely spiritual or somehow has a physical existence has yet to be explained. The Mage of the Beginning's true form is a gigantic and creepy female being; mixing divine imagery like a halo, five pairs of angelic wings, and a long veil torn to shreds at the hem, covering her head and flowing down behind her like a cape, with demonic features like her monstrous face whose mouth is open showing a single eye. She has six long arms covered in wrappings of sorts, and shrivelled legs fused into a stake-like shape covered in the same wrappings. She has strange lights at the end of her six hands, and radiates strange tendrils of darkness.UQ Holder! Manga: Chapter 140, Page 21 Personality Because her unique skill, the Resonance, constantly connects her to all pain of every living being, the Mage of the Beginning is, as stated by Fate, "broken". She wants to free herself from it by ending suffering for good, but she would not hesitate to take drastic measures such as banishing all life in a paradise dimension, like she attempted several times in the Magical World. Although cruel, callous and willing to shoot her servants to strike her foes, she displays a melancholic, contemplative side, and seems rather fond of humanity. However, most of her personality remains mysterious. She is calm, collected and polite, but more importantly very detached, indifferent and nearly emotionless. She has an extremely cynical outlook, leading her to believe that torment never ends and that happiness has no meaning. She seems to regard making people disappear into the Cosmo Entelecheia paradise as freeing them from their torment. While rather respectful towards her foes, she never hesitates to scathingly dismiss they ideals as pointless delusions, and states repeatedly that they cannot save the world or their loved ones, no matter how hard they try. She is very adept in playing with people's affects and fears to break their spirit. History :This section covers only the history revealed in ''UQ Holder!. ''For the Mage of the Beginning's past exploits, please see Negima! Wiki. Over the course of the story, Touta learns about Evangeline's past and the Springfield family's history, and the Mage of the Beginning's role in both. (In Evangeline's flashback of when she became a vampire, the archmage is seen telling her about immortality.) Being the one who turned Evangeline into a vampire, the enemy fought by Nagi Springfield's team the Ala Rubra and Negi Springfield's team the Ala Alba, and the responsible of both mages' disappearances, The Life-Maker is the sworn archnemesis of both Evangeline and the Springfield family, and UQ Holder and the Ala Alba have sworn to take her down once and for all. 20 years before the start of the series, the Mage of the Beginning escaped from her seal under the World Tree of Mahora. She is said to have brought the world to the brink of extinction, to the point that the mere mention of her could cause a global panic, and was as such made taboo. Shion Nagumo tried to face her but was overwhelmed by her armies of demon-constructs and only owed his life to Negi, Fate, Mana Tatsumiya and Zazie Rainyday. Negi destroyed the Life-Maker, killing his father who was her vessel, and disappeared. Plot Mahora Martial Arts Tournament Arc The Mage first appears in the story during a spell or illusion supposedly created by Negi and/or Nagi Springfield. She stared at Touta Konoe, seemingly satisfied, and then the illusion disappeared. Later, Touta learns more about her from Dana Ananga Jagannatha and then from Negi's former students. Since he is the only one who can destroy the Life-Maker for good, and since her possession of Negi is imminent, Touta resolves to defeat her and save his "grandfather". As Touta is about to finish the hydrofoil race along with Shinobu Yuuki, Mizore Yukihiro and Kirie Sakurame, he is attacked by Cutlass. Negi then appears, with Albireo Imma, Jack Rakan, Nodoka Miyazaki and Yue Ayase, all under the Mage of the Beginning's control. Touta and Evangeline end up trapped in the Mage's Phantasmagoria, in which the Mage herself appears, revealing her true name and introducing herself as their enemy. They resolve to defeat her, but they stand no chance and end up overwhelmed. She uses the image of Negi and Nagi to toy with Evangeline's feelings and break her resolve before reducing her to dust, musing that for as powerful and experienced as she is she remains a little girl. She then creates replicas of her Apostles to overwhelm Touta, and brings his friends in the Phantasmagoria under her control to shatter his spirit. As he is struggling against the Life-Maker's mental attack, they are all saved by Asuna Kagurazaka's miraculous intervention. Some time later, Dana shows Touta and his friends a recording of the "Time of the Happy Ending", the timeline in which Asuna returned and in which they could defeat the Life-Maker once and for all and save Nagi, revealing the way they can defeat her in this timeline, prompting Touta to declare that they will build their own happy ending. Abilities The Mage of the Beginning is far and away the most powerful being in the series. Even though obscenely powerful beings like Nagi and Negi can defeat her in battle, she has proven to be nigh-omnipotent, being able to create and resurrect absurdly powerful beings, to warp reality and to master all kind of magic. Resonance: A unique skill that the Mage of the Beginning possesses. As explained by Fate Averruncus, it is a constantly active, god-like super ability that causes her to feel and remember the pain of everyone in existence without stop, having infinite range and not being limited by a certain amount of people. Fate describes it as "Infinite Empathy". Since the essence of Black Magic is to convert negative emotions into magic power, the Mage of the Beginning's power can be boosted near infinitely using this ability. Revenge-Type Mental Possession: When she is killed, the Mage of the Beginning will take over the body of the one who killed her. It will take some time for her to take over the mind of her victim, however, that person is immediately granted her unique skill, Resonance after being possessed, and once his or her mind breaks from the burden of feeling all of humanity's pain, she will be reborn through them. White of Mars: A divine power of creation based on the Forces of Light, which she passed to all her descendant, and which is ironically the only power that can destroy her once and for all. She used it to create an entire world, with fauna, flora and population; and an edenic dimension where everyone lives the happiest possible life. This power enables its wielders to either cancel any type of magic, or to warp reality to an exceptional extent, bending time, space and dimensions and affecting magical artifacts. Black of Venus: A divine power of destruction based on the Forces of Darkness, which is the base of Evangeline's Magia Erebea technique. The darkness is fueled by negative emotions and feelings. It can engulf and assimilate everything, and enables the caster to absorb spells into themselves to boost their might and abilities. In addition, the Mage of the Beginning can conjure darkness and shape it solid, to form bounds and points among others, and uses frighteningly devastating darkness-themed attack that shatter even the mightiest protections. Phantasmagorias: The Mage of the Beginning can create imaginary worlds outside reality, in which she controls everything, which she can shape and influence how she pleases. It has been described as akin to her "womb" or her "dreams". She can shape it according to people's past and memories, to which she seems to have some sort of access. She can enter it and drag people into them, deciding how they look like inside it, or even whether they appear as invisible and intangible 'spectators' or real persons. She can also create perfect replicas of people within it, with the same powers, skills and memories as their models, and make them act how she wants to. Mastery of Magic: The Mage of the Beginning displays virtually absolute mastery of magic, being able to grant incredible might, perfect mastery of a type of Elemental Magic, and knowledge of the mightiest types of spells to the construct-mages she creates. She has proved able to spawn a vast army of shadowy demon-constructs, who easily defeated Shion Nagumo and his team, but were in turn easily defeated by Negi Springfield and his team. Necromancy: The Mage of the Beginning (and her hosts) are able to animate and control the living dead, with Negi under her influence was seen conjuring countless of skeletons in seconds. Her mastery of necromancy was described as a "whole new level" above that of Sayoko Minase, who very nearly destroyed humanity. Santa even mentioned she posses 10,000 times more malevolent spirits than Sayoko herself, implying that Mage of the Beginning could very well have at least 3 billion raging spirits inside her. Battle Magic: Such unbelievable power makes the Life-Maker a terrifying enemy, of whom even Evangeline herself is afraid. In addition to the previously darkness-themed attacks, she (and her hosts) can paralyse their foes instantly and with seemingly no possible counter. She uses her cape like limbs and hardens it to block attacks and deliver onlsaughts of slicing blows with extreme speed and might. With it she can slice everything around her, even hundreds of miles away, and reduce a gigantic tower into rubbles in seconds. She can also fire darts that bypass defences and reduce anyone they touch into dust, no matter how powerful their regeneration is, reducing the immortal Evangeline to just a finger. Fortunately, victims of this kind of attack can be restored by the White of Mars power. Jovis Tempestas Fulguriens: An attack spell which combines the elements of wind and lightning into a directed storm teeming with lightning. Used against Negi and Fate while in Nagi's body. References Navigation Category:Characters Category:Female Category:Immortals Category:Recurring Characters